About Angharad
“Ariodante tends to steal this particular show and with her silvery, shaded mezzo and poetic phrasing no one will have begrudged Angharad Rowlands her ovation. Her ‘Scherza infida’ seemed to suspend time.”
- The Spectator
“In the title role, the mezzo-soprano Angharad Rowlands warmed to the task, unleashing her full range of expression in her joyful final aria ‘Dopo notte’. I’d have loved her to sing it all over again.”
- The Guardian
“In the opera’s greatest hit ‘Dopo notte’, Rowlands showed great versatility, comfortable stage presence and maintained the jubilant scene with a vibrant, flexible voice, and a confidence in the space.”
- Gramophone
“Angharad Rowlands did wonders with her extraordinary, powerfully sung, misanthropic Florence Pike.”
- The Classical Source
Welsh mezzo-soprano Angharad Rowlands is a Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for 2025-27. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Raymond Connell and Iain Ledingham, with her studies generously supported by the Carr-Gregory Trust, the Norman Ayrton Award, and the Josephine Baker Trust. Angharad is a 2024 International Handel Singing Competition finalist and the winner of the 2022 Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award Song Prize.
This season, Angharad returns to the Glyndebourne Chorus, covering the role of Zweite Knappe in Wagner’s Parsifal and Žena in Janáček’s Kát’a Kabanová, as well as performing in Verdi’s Falstaff and Handel’s Saul.
At Royal Academy Opera, Angharad performed several notable roles including the title role in Handel’s Ariodante, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Florence Pike (Albert Herring), Agnes/Troll 3 (WITCH), 2nd Witch (Dido & Aeneas), and cover Mother Goose (The Rake’s Progress). Other roles include 2nd Bridesmaid (Le nozze di Figaro - Royal Ballet & Opera), cover Praskowia (The Merry Widow - Glyndebourne Festival Opera), cover Juno (Semele - Opéra de Lille), Quince/Fairy (The Fairy Queen - Longborough Festival Opera), and Dido (Dido & Aeneas - Hurn Court Opera).
Angharad’s concert highlights include Schumann’s Requiem für Mignon at the Salzburg Festival, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with John Eliot Gardiner, Bach’s St John Passion with Philippe Herreweghe, Handel’s Israel in Egypt at St John’s Smith Square, and Handel’s Messiah with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
In recital, Angharad has performed at the Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Song, International Lied Festival Zeist, and Wigmore Hall.
A proud Welsh speaker, Angharad spent her formative years competing in the National Eisteddfod of Wales under the guidance of Leah Owen, specialising in the ancient Welsh tradition of Cerdd Dant and folk singing. She graduated with a degree in Art History from the University of St Andrews in 2017, and later completed a Postgraduate Diploma at Trinity Laban, where she received the 2019-20 Drapers’ de Turckheim Award.
This biography is available for reproduction only upon the artist's request.